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Revit 2013 Materials and Assets Editors

11 REPLIES 11
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Message 1 of 12
IMCornish
6585 Views, 11 Replies

Revit 2013 Materials and Assets Editors

No matter how hard I try I am still absolutely confounded by new materials and asset editing arrangements in Revit 2013. Despite hours of trial and error I am still no further forward.  Take a 'for instance',  I want to have an appearance asset that describes a 'ruby red tinted glass' and because I wanted to create some more materials for the same project I opened the materials editor and created a new library with a glass category, then I started to create a new material (in the document) Material Editor opens with a 'New Default Material' and I click to open a suitable 'appearance' asset from the OOTB libraries, and since there is not a suitable 'Clear Red Glass' I choose from the Solid Glass category, 'Clear' so that I can edit this.  Oddly enough in the 'Color' drop down, this is already shown as 'Custom' (why not 'clear' which is available in the drop down list?) and, since there is no 'Red' alternative in the drop down, I leave it on 'custom' and proceed to edit the 'Custom Color' and change this to a suitable red.  This is where it starts to become baffling.  Because I cannot change the appearance asset name, I right click the asset and add to my new library file, glass category. This appears to be the only way to rename it and I find it in my library by opening the 'Asset Browser' and rename it, then because I want my asset with the correct name in my new material I click the substitute button.  So far so good, its the end of the working day and so I send my library file to the cloud, pack up and go home.  Having sat down that evening I pick up my laptop and because I have nothing better to do I download my library file in the happy thought of producing some more materials and assets.  However, when I do I am dumbfounded to see that that a 'tinting' option has magically appeared in both my 'Material' and 'Asset' Editor windows.  Being some hours later than when I was at work, I make myself believe that I just didn't see this option and decide that it seems more sensible to have a 'Clear' Glass with a colored tint than a custom colored glass so I changed both the asset to reflect this and replaced the original asset in the material to match.  The Preview looked pretty much the same and I again uploaded the revised library file to the cloud with a view to downloading it the following day and carrying on the struggle!

Imagine my surprise (dismay) to find that on downloading the revised file from the evening before, the asset had reverted to what I had begun in the first place and what is more the 'Tint' option was nowhere to be seen!

The only difference between my office workstation and my home laptop is their operating systems, the former being Vista Pro and the later W7.  See the images below:

 

R13 - Vista Pro

 

R13-Windows 7.jpg

 

If anyone can explain why this should be then I would be immensely grateful and it would mean that I could actually achieve something!

Andrew Robertson
Chartered Architect
Robertson Partnership
Truro. UK
11 REPLIES 11
Message 2 of 12
Chris.Aquino
in reply to: IMCornish

As Vista is not a supported environment for running Revit 2013, there may be unexpected issues that we cannot resolve. I would try the same steps on another Window 7 machine to see if you can reproduce the behavior in a supported environment.



Chris Aquino
Adoption Marketing Manager | BIM Collaborate Pro
@Aquinotecture

Message 3 of 12
IMCornish
in reply to: Chris.Aquino

Can I ask why on earth Vista is not supported??

Andrew Robertson
Chartered Architect
Robertson Partnership
Truro. UK
Message 4 of 12
Chris.Aquino
in reply to: IMCornish

From the page below, "Microsoft ended sales support for Vista in 2011, and will end mainstream support in 2012. Our research and customer engagement on this topic has shown that an overwhelming majority of our installed base has already moved off of this operating system."

 

The entire page can be found here:

 

Microsoft Windows Vista Support FAQ



Chris Aquino
Adoption Marketing Manager | BIM Collaborate Pro
@Aquinotecture

Message 5 of 12
bccpks
in reply to: IMCornish

For the life of me, the new 2013 material editor has to be the most frustrating thing about 2013 - moreso even than glass making walls transparent, which is a whole other subject.  What used to take minutes now takes hours.  Not only are the selections divided into little panels which are only editable in certain modes, I find that their seem to be relationships between materials that induce errors in drawings which are always frustrating, but often difficult to catch.

In the old editor, in order to make a material, it was simple - duplicate an existing material, edit it, and voila - new material.

Now, with the 2013 material editor, editing one duplicated material sometimes - but not always - changes the others as well.  Does AutoDesk have clear, concise documentation on the new editors, or can they create an add-in that allows the 2012 material editor to be used?

Message 6 of 12
beacharchitect
in reply to: bccpks

I totally agree with you. The new materials editor is confusing, disorganized and crashes Revit if you try to use a pad device. When I am searching for a material, it takes forever. Editing one is even worse. Please fix this or go back to the old version

 

Thad Broom, AIA

Message 7 of 12
IMCornish
in reply to: Chris.Aquino

From the responses of others I suspect that it is not a Vista issue and suggest that Autodesk take these comments seriously please.

Andrew Robertson
Chartered Architect
Robertson Partnership
Truro. UK
Message 8 of 12

I've found the new materials editor to be incredibly frustrating when trying to use it to make simple changes to materials for rendering. It's slow to open, crashes frequently and the introduction of the new "Assets" category is counterintuitive , clunky and frankly dangerous, because if you don't understand it and track which assets you're using, you can change numerous materials at once. Why do I need to cascade 3 separate windows to change the colour on some precast? It's crazy.

 

It may have more functionality than before but I can't imagine that 99% of architects will ever need all of the features and they're hobbled by useless overhead.

 

Revit has primitive, simplistic rendering. (Let's face it, anyone wanting exceptional output is going to 3DS. In fact you can't buy Revit Architecture without buying a copy of 3DS any more.) So the materials editor for Revit should be designed to suit. I think it's a case of the program trying to get too clever for its own good.

Message 9 of 12
IMCornish
in reply to: IH-Paradigm

I missed this post when it was new but I agree entirely with what ian has said.

Andrew Robertson
Chartered Architect
Robertson Partnership
Truro. UK
Message 10 of 12
spacefab
in reply to: IMCornish

This thing is a total mess...

I am also totally puzzled that an organisation like Autodesk releases a version with this kind of unfinished software...

The online forum help lacks almost as much as the material + assets editors.

It is litterally impossible to set up a logic workflow with this addition.

Sad to think about how many manhours that are going down the drain amongst the revit architecture users around the world.

I certainly hope that autodesk is focusing on this major flaw soon.

There are serious competion in the CAD/BIM area of software.

 

Message 11 of 12
IMCornish
in reply to: spacefab

You will no doubt have noticed that I originally raised this subject almost 9 months ago and apart from one response from an Autodesk representative suggesting that my root problem was the unsupported windows Vista platform I was using, I am very glad that you and other users have supported my stance that the 2013  version of the materials and asset editor element of Revit is a complete shambles.  I am particularly pleased to see your comment about the lost manhours.

I for one will be extremely disappointed if the 2014 version, launching in the next week or so , does not address this issue.  It would also be nice to see some Autodesk reaction to this issue. 

Andrew Robertson
Chartered Architect
Robertson Partnership
Truro. UK
Message 12 of 12
littlebim
in reply to: IMCornish

I am with all of you on the lack of intuitiveness for the material editor in Revit 2013! It's almost counter productive - I simply want to change a material's physical properties and then retain those properties but change the colours, something that was relatively easy to do in 2012 now feels like walking a maze in 2013!

 

LBIM

Chartered Architect, UK

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